Transcript Maps and Theories - Innovative Learning

Role of Research
The OOPS Survey and
Types of Educational Research
Check Your Knowledge
See how well some of your own hypotheses
about thinking and learning compare to those
discovered through educational research.
Take the OOPS (Ormrod’s Own Psychological
Survey) and then compare your answers with
those that follow. (From Ormrod, 2003, p. 2)
True or False?
1. Most children 5
years of age and
older are natural
learners; they know
the best way to
learn something
without having to be
taught how to learn
it.
FALSE—Many
students of all ages
are quite naïve
about the best ways
to learn. They don’t
know how to use
effective elaboration
strategies to make
ideas their own.
True or False?
2. When we compare
boys and girls, we
find that both
groups are, on
average, very similar
in their
mathematical and
verbal abilities.
TRUE—Despite
commonly held
beliefs to the
contrary, boys and
girls tend to be
similar in their
abilities to perform
on both
mathematical and
verbal tasks.
True or False?
3. The best way to
learn and remember
a new fact is to
repeat it over and
over again.
FALSE—Repetition
may be better than
doing nothing, but
students remember
things longer when
they connect them
with things they
already know and
when they elaborate
on them.
True or False?
4. Although students
initially have many
misconceptions
about the world,
they quickly revise
their thinking once
their teacher
presents information
that contradicts
what they believe.
FALSE—Children
typically have many
misconceptions and
hold on to them
even in the face of
contradictory
instruction or
evidence.
True or False?
5. Students often
misjudge how much
they know about a
topic.
TRUE—Students are
usually not the best
judges of what they do
and do not know. Even
though students may
spend a lot of time
reading, they may know
far less than they think
they do because they
they often read
ineffectively.
True or False?
6. Taking notes during
a lecture usually
interferes with
learning more than
it helps.
FALSE—In general,
students who take
notes learn more
material from a
lecture than
students who don’t.
Why do you think
that is?
True or False?
7. When a teacher
rewards one student
for appropriate
behavior, the
behavior of other
students may also
improve.
TRUE—When
students observe
other students being
rewarded for certain
behaviors, they are
likely to behave in a
similar way.
True or False?
8. Anxiety sometimes
helps students learn
and perform more
successfully in the
classroom.
TRUE—For some
classroom tasks,
especially relatively
easy tasks, a
moderate level of
anxiety actually
improves learning
and performance.
True or False?
9. When we have children
tutor their classmates in
academic subject
matter, we help only the
students being tutored;
the students doing the
tutoring gain very little
from the interaction.
FALSE—Research
has shown those
doing the tutoring
often benefit as
much as those being
tutored.
True or False?
10. The ways in which
teachers assess
students’ learning
influence what and
how the students
actually learn.
TRUE—What and
how students learn
depend, in part, on
how they expect to
their learning to be
assessed.
How Did You Do?
Were you surprised by any answers?
How can psychological and educational
research extend and enhance your
decision-making skills as a teacher?
What methods do researchers use to
find objective answers to questions
about teaching and learning?
Experimental Research
Experimental Study: A research study
that involves the manipulation of one
variable to determine its possible effect
on another variable. It enables
researchers to draw conclusions about
cause-effect relationships.
(Ormrod, 2003)
Types of Experiments
Laboratory Experiments
Randomized Field Experiments
Single-Case Experiments
Correlational Research
Correlational Study: A research study
that explores relationships among
variables. Such a study enables
researchers to predict one variable on
the basis of their knowledge of another
but not to draw a conclusion about a
cause-effect relationship.
(Ormrod, 2003)
Descriptive Research
Descriptive Study: A research study
that describes situations. Such a study
enables researchers to draw conclusions
about the current state of affairs but
not about correlational or cause-effect
relationships.
(Ormrod, 2003)
Descriptive Research
Examples:
Surveys
Interviews
Ethnographies (observation of a social
setting over an extended period)
Action Research (a form of descriptive
research carried out by educators in their
own classrooms or schools)